UCL Union Council Meeting 6/12/2004

The UCL Union Council Meeting yesterday was a big, contentious one, with six motions tabled for discussion. The most important of these, as far as Rare FM was concerned, was a motion urging for 'Vibrant Media Societies', which resolved to fully-fund Rare FM's RSL license, and to seek a sabbatical editor for Pi Magazine, which would no longer be a society.

I, along with Pi Magazine, disagreed with the parts relating to Pi Magazine, as such a motion would leave Pi Magazine disaffiliated, with no guaranteed sabbatical editor or future status (such a change would have required a Special Resolution). Whilst there is currently an issue of the editorial control of Pi (it's jointly edited by the Union Media Officer and a student editor), I don't think that it needs a full-time editor - it'd be better to simply make the student editor the only editor.

So, I submitted an amendment which changed the parts relating to Pi, brought in some extra facts to back up Rare FM's case for funding, and brought in an extra clause to guarantee some money for the 'Media Fund' for next year (to be spent on the TV studio).

The first motion, dubbed 'the big societies motion', aimed to allow clubs and societies easy lives by allowing them to have bank accounts, to sell their own memberships, and to put up their own publicity on unlocked display boards. There was some good stuff in this motion, and it was backed up with examples of where these things had been done successfully in other unis, but most of the Exec were against on the grounds of 'needing an audit trail' and preventing unauthorised posting of notices on display boards. The motion subsequently FELL, with some of the proposers consequently walking out.

The first motion, which resolved to congratulate the LGB society on their 30th anniversary and allocate £200 for celebrations, was NOT PUT following a narrowly successful procedural motion, and was instead DEFERED to Campaigns Committee. This seemed a bit ridiculous, and I didn't see why we should just vote on it there and then.

The third motion, 'bringing the union online', mandated the union to improve their website, to set-up an e-mail list facility, to publish the minutes of all meetings, to set up a secure shop which would be able to sell club/society memberships, to meet accessibility guidelines, and to lobby the college to install more wireless hotspots. In the absence of the proposer (who had left), I proposed this motion instead. There was general agreement with the motion, however the M&C officer mandated to carry out the changes was unsure as to whether she could fulfil them within the timeframe specified, and so proposed replacing the deadlines with 'as soon as possible', which PASSED (although I opposed it). The substantive was then PASSED.

The forth motion proposed reforming the Honours system, making them more open, and category based. This PASSED fairly uncontroversially, with a couple of parts removed.

The final motion was the one that most people had been waiting for - 'media reform'. The proposer was again absent, which saved time as it meant that I could propse the motion instead, accepting immediately my own amendment. I gave a speech in favour of the motion, and then there was discussion from the floor. Most people were in favour, agreeing that Rare FM had massively improved and that an FM license would be a good event for the whole of the Union. There were some reservations over the finances though. A procedural motion from the editor of Pi Magazine successfully removed all references to Pi Magazine, on the basis that they were happening anyway (I thought that they may as well stay in in that case). I then summed-up, urging people to vote for the motion. The vote was then cast, and the motion was PASSED with a massive 22-1 majority. The policy to fund Rare FM's FM license still has to be agreed by Finance Committee, but they should now be able to give us the money, hooray! Not only that, but they now have to put a 'prominent, permanent link' to us on the UCL Union website, and Rare FM is now officially 'great' in the policy of the Union...

The no-smoking motion was withdrawn (presumably by the proposer), to be put to the AGM instead... There will also soon be an NUS-affiliation referendum, with Union officers free to support either campaign as they see fit.